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I'm Eirene - backstreet pilgrim.

I'm changing my image of God, one step at a time. My journey is taking me through the backstreets,

not by any main route into the city.

Walk with me.

Quote of the week

'Go to sleep in peace.

God is awake.'

Victor Hugo

Welcome!

Start here

Exploring your spiritual journey?

Check out my blog

Are you a writer?

Interested in Franciscans?

eirenepalmer

May 22
3 min

What is prayer to you?

I’ve not written much lately as I’ve had all on looking after my 97 year old mum. She has just had a pacemaker fitted and is all bionic...

0 comments

eirenepalmer

Apr 17
3 min

It's still Easter

Easter was over a week ago, but it’s still Easter. Easter in the church lasts for fifty days until May 28th this year when we celebrate...

2 comments

eirenepalmer

Jan 22
4 min

Gas and Air

A few years ago, I fell down a flight of steps in one of our great English cathedrals. I won’t mention which one because there are such...

0 comments

Happy Hopeful New Year - changing from the inside out

eirenepalmer

Jan 12
3 min

Happy Hopeful New Year - changing from the inside out

It’s a tad late – but Happy New Year! New Year, New You! Yeah right. I don’t do new year’s resolutions because I never keep them. It’s...

1 comment

eirenepalmer

Nov 18, 2022
3 min

Peace mail

Last weekend, me and Richard ran a writing retreat at Launde Abbey in Leicestershire. And far from finding my best self before we went, I...

2 comments

eirenepalmer

May 26, 2022
4 min

Recovering from Biblical anorexia

When I was a young ordinand’s wife helping out in the library of his theological college, I looked up from my desk one day to find the...

0 comments

eirenepalmer

Mar 25, 2022
4 min

Loved. Accepted. Held.

I wish I could say to you, dear readers, that I’m covering many miles and a lot of ground at speed on this, my spiritual journey. For the...

1 comment

eirenepalmer

Mar 4, 2022
3 min

Encircle. Heal. Protect.

If, like me you were raised in a fundamentalist church, you learn to try very hard from the very beginning. Try hard to be good. Try hard...

1 comment

eirenepalmer

Feb 3, 2022
3 min

Ever felt a failure?

We have just celebrated Candlemas – the Feast of the Presentation, which turned up as a crossword clue in the Times last weekend and for...

2 comments

eirenepalmer

Jan 20, 2022
3 min

Is God a dog?

Much against my better judgement (I’m still berating myself for things I ‘shouldn’t' do as a novice in TSSF) I took myself off to the...

1 comment

eirenepalmer

Jan 12, 2022
3 min

Imperfect ideas - a reflection on 2022

I’m just emerging from the limbo-land, the lethargy, the liminal place if you like, that is the ocean of space after Christmas and New...

2 comments

Don't try so hard - a reflection for Advent

eirenepalmer

Dec 16, 2021
4 min

Don't try so hard - a reflection for Advent

So, the run-up to Christmas this year is unusually calm. The tree is decorated, the presents are wrapped, the cards are written. Normally...

2 comments

eirenepalmer

Nov 25, 2021
4 min

Learning to carry the light

Here I am, signed up to the novitiate in the Third Order of Franciscans, and I know that I have this blueprint in my head of what a good...

2 comments

eirenepalmer

Nov 18, 2021
3 min

How do you pray?

There was a time when those four words would have sent me into orgy of self -loathing. I just didn’t pray – or at least I didn’t think I...

2 comments

eirenepalmer

Nov 11, 2021
4 min

Sacred Space

When I was small, I was told that God could see me all the time. At five, you believe most things grown-ups tell you, and I saw no reason...

1 comment

eirenepalmer

Nov 4, 2021
4 min

Just as I am

Now I may have mentioned once or twice that the church I grew up in was a little, shall we say, less than liberal. And I don’t want to go...

2 comments

eirenepalmer

Oct 28, 2021
4 min

God hates a straitjacket

I used to feel that being a Christian was exhausting. It was just plain hard work. I grew up singing nifty little choruses such as, ‘Read...

0 comments

Today's Headline! New Novice Finds Words!

eirenepalmer

Oct 21, 2021
4 min

Today's Headline! New Novice Finds Words!

So, there I am, standing up in front of a congregation of supporters, proclaiming my intention to dedicate myself to the service of Our...

0 comments

eirenepalmer

Oct 14, 2021
3 min

The doubting novice

The week before I became a novice, I felt empty. I felt low, ungracious, raw and angry. The week when I should have been full of life and...

0 comments

eirenepalmer

Sep 23, 2021
4 min

A Simple Life

I sometimes feel, living in our little outcrop of rock in the middle of the North Sea that other countries have so much more nature than...

0 comments

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Archive

Welcome!

Exploring your spiritual journey? Check out my blog

Are you a writer?

Interested in Franciscans?

To contact: backstreetpilgrim@gmail.com

Privacy Policy

Exploring your spiritual journey?

Check out my blog